Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Benson stared at him, kneeling in snow and mud, and couldn’t connect any of it to what his mind was thinking.
He was dreaming. He was losing his mind. If he said yes or no, the dream would split apart and he’d be talking to a banana in a pool of grape jelly, or he’d be in a park, skating on pickles over marshmallow sidewalks.
Luka stood and shook him a little. “Are you okay?”
The shaking broke his stupor. “What?”
“I guess that’s a no?”
Then he remembered. Luka had just stolen his thunder. Benson had every intention of proposing later in their trip. “I…I have rings, and I…”
Luka turned bright red and ducked his head as he said, “You were going to. Shit. I ruined it.”
Benson grabbed his head and pulled it up so he could look into those beautiful eyes, and he laughed. “I don’t care who did it. All I want is to marry you, and I thought I was jumping the gun, pushing you too fast, but…it’s all I want in the world.”
Luka jumped up and wrapped his arms around Benson’s neck, holding on while he kissed him so hard, Benson’s lips hurt, but he didn’t care a bit. He kissed back and held him there, in the cold, in the snow and mud, and fell harder in love.
They got to their hotel just a little after the sun fell behind the hills, and they had a romantic dinner, though the candles and champagne was mostly ignored while they discussed their future home.
“I love the window, but…”
“There’s a window in the guesthouse, which is to be yours.”
“Mine? We’re not living together?”
God, he was so cute. “No, honey, we are, but it’s yours to make into your writing room…house, whatever.”
“Oh! Oh, well, geez, a whole house?”
“Well, it can still be a guesthouse, too. Our mothers, friends, whatever. But most of the time, it’ll be where you can go to have quiet and think of all the things you want to write. I’ll make it however you want.”
“You are too damn generous. How the hell are you still rich?”
Benson chuckled and said with disdain, “That’s what Joyce thought.”
“Fuck that ho.”
Giggling, he said, “Exactly. No, I’m a rich guy who was very poor. I’m not into hoarding my money. I want to spend it, use it for good things, to help others, to do something good in the world.”
“I love that. Okay, well, I want the second house. I’m glad you made me go.”
“How about this? We can’t move yet. We have months before we can move. You are not leaving the play until summer; I have a ton of loose ends to get finished. So…we can still look around.”
“But what if we lose that house while we’re still looking?”
“I’ll buy it, and if we find another, I’ll sell it, or whatever. Stop worrying.”
Luka fell back into the chair. “I will always worry. It’s what I do.”
“Okay. You worry, I’ll spend, and we’ll make a great team. Just don’t make me…don’t act like Joyce, ever, and try to make me hurt people to make money.”
“That’s not even a worry for you. I’d never hurt people. Not on purpose, for sure.”
After a night of love, they slept in and, once awake, and after breakfast and showers, they took a long walk, and Benson’s next surprise came that day, and again, Luka would decide.
They walked through the town, stopping at the little church on the street just east of the highway. “This is a beautiful little church!”
“Luka, are you a closeted religious person?”
“No, you know that. It’s a pretty building.”
“Thank you,” came a voice from behind them. They both turned to see a handsome man sauntering toward them.
Benson smiled and proffered a hand. “You must be the minister?”
“I am. My name is Mark Rafferty, but everyone around here calls me Pappy.”
“Pappy?” Luka asked.
“I used to be a Catholic priest, but father never seemed to fit me. It came from my congregation back then.”
Luka was astonished. “Wow. And you’re the preacher of a town of gay people?”
“Luka!” Benson chided.
“Well, you said it!”
“You remind me of one of my partners. Binxie is as open as you are, Luka. And to answer, the town isn’t filled with gay people, but there is a nice, diverse community here. I’d love to show you around and introduce you to some folks.”
“Wait,” Luka said, knowing Benson was about to duct tape his mouth, but he had to ask. “Partners? Plural?”
“I have two partners, Binxie and Nathan. We used to live here, but recently moved to Montana, but we still have many friends in town.”
“Is Binxie a guy?”
Benson growled at him and said, “I swear to God, Luka.” After he said that, he said to Pappy, “Sorry, that’s blasphemous or something. Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine,” Pappy laughed. “Listen, I’m meeting with the current minister here, but what are you doing for dinner?”
“Not a thing. Right now, though, I’m giving Luka another of his presents, so…so, we…”
“Oh, I see. Well, there is a diner in town, the only one, actually. Come around six and I’ll introduce you to some amazing people.”
“We’ll be there,” Luka said. “I love it here already.”
After they left him, Benson whispered to him, “That’s getting you a spanking. Luka, you are hyper! I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this way.”
“Hey, done with acting this summer, living in the mountains in a sweet little house and marrying the guy of my literal dreams. I’m a little happy right now, okay?”
Benson had changed him. Not that he wanted to change him, but changing him to be this happy guy, well, that he’d be proud of.
“So, what are you giving me now? Car, my own mountain, what?”
“Nothing quite that extravagant. We need to head down this street over here.”
“Cool.”
Luka was indeed freaking him out a little. From the serious, almost hostile man to this guy who was skipping like a little kid. “Baby, you’re even more beautiful right now.”
“I feel more beautiful! Like…it’s so weird!”
They heard it before they saw the place, and Luka stopped to stare at him. “Is that a pound?”
“No, not exactly. It’s an animal rescue. They take in dogs, cats, horses, and even cattle that other shelters can’t adopt out.”
Luka was glowing. “A dog?”
“A dog, and this time, you pick all on your own.”
Luka took off running, and Benson watched him, laughing.
Like a kid at Christmas, and in a lot of ways, he was.
So was Benson. The excitement he felt planning this trip, he felt like he was ten and he was running into see a room filled with Christmas.
A gorgeous tree and presents that it would take hours to unwrap.
That was Luka. He was the present that he’d unwrap for the rest of his life, he hoped.
Luka was going from kennel to kennel, talking to all the dogs, kneeling to be soft with some that looked terrified, and Benson realized he’d probably be leaving with more than one. He saw it on Luka’s face.
“Benson, look at him,” he said, pointing to a dog that had to be part lab, part chow. “Isn’t he beautiful?”
“He is.”
“Fluffy and black, the eyes that seemed to be older than time. His curled tail was wagging as he moved to the gate and panted.
Across from the chow mix, there was a smaller dog, younger. She was a pretty thing, a corgi mix by looking at the short legs and big feet, though she was almost completely white and her face was much different from a corgi.
Luka was in the center of the aisle, his head on a swivel as he looked from one to the other.
When the woman came in, wiping the hair off her black jeans, she asked if they needed help.
Benson answered, “We’d like to take these two.”
Luka smiled and clapped silently. “Yes, please. These two.”
Benson laughed and called the car. “I’m going to need to ask the hotel if we can take them there.”
“Wait now, there’s a couple of days where we check on you, and all that. Come fill out the papers, and then we can let you have the dogs in a room to get to know them. You can take them for a walk too, being it’s a nice day.”
Luka nodded hard. “We’ll do whatever. My boyfriend…I mean, my fiancé, he’s loaded.”
She looked surprised only for a moment before she laughed. “Well, okay then.”
“Luka, I swear.”
She led them to a room, and soon the dogs were there with them. As Luka pet them both, talking to them, Benson watched. Again, his love for Luka growing.
“You’re both good dogs and we promise we’ll give you a good home. You’ll never be hungry, and we can take you to the vet, and you’ll have dog beds and the best food, the best of everything.” Luka looked over to Benson. “Right?”
“Right! I always wanted a dog, Luka. We couldn’t afford one, and I think I’m seeing that you went through the same.”
“Yeah. I wanted one so bad. But they are expensive. Mom was right, of course, but I hated her for it. I thought she was being so mean.”
“Well, I didn’t know either. I was pretty angry for years too.”
“Well, we can have them now.”
“Yes, we sure can.”
They spent the day with the dogs, and Benson filled out more paperwork than he remembered doing when he made his company, but he was glad of it. He was happy that the dogs were assured good homes.
As they were saying goodbye to the dogs, Anne, the head of the shelter, came to them and told them, “Your references checked out. The dogs are yours if you can let us know where they will be living.”
That was when they stopped, and Luka squirmed. “We live in New York right now, but we’re moving here this summer.”
“Yes, Luka’s right. We have some business to handle there, but then we’ll be here for most of the year from now on. Can we take them back home with us?”
“Oh! Sure, yes, but when you get here, we’ll need to do a home visit. I can send someone from a sister agency to go to your place in New York, but here, I’d just like to see for myself.”
Luka nodded and said, “Not my place, I can’t have pets, but Benson lives in this amazing penthouse, and he can surely have pets.”
“It’s mine, so of course, I can, and I’ll hire a dog sitter when we’re both at work.”
“A dog sitter for…every day?”
“Yes. I don’t want them to ever be lonely,” Benson reasoned.
Margaret was shocked. “Well, yes, that’s…that’s great, but you know a lot of dogs are left home while their humans work, right?”
“These are our dogs. These are Luka’s dogs. I just assured him they’d be treated like kings, and that is what will happen.”
Luka beamed up at him as he was on his knees again, petting both dogs. “Did you hear that? Perfect timing for Christmas, Benson’s got himself three kings, and we’re going to be so spoiled.”
“Yes. You will.”